This invention relates to data processing systems.
Application programs running in a data processing system frequently require to make use of software tools, ie standard utility programs that perform some specified function. An example of such a tool is the UNIX date function, which returns the current real-time date. (UNIX is a trade mark of Unix System Laboratories Inc).
A problem arises when the application programs and the tools reside in different data processing environments. In such a case, some way must be provided to enable application programs to use the tools.
One way to achieve this would be to build-in to each application program a knowledge of the environment in which each required tool operates, so that the application program can communicate directly with the tool. However, this requires considerable effort on the part of the designer of the application program, and means that each application program has to be specially tailored to take the account of the tools that it might use.
The object of the present invention is to provide a way of overcoming this problem.